A variety of known percutaneous fixation implants are currently used to couple a prosthesis to a selected bone of a subject. Typically, the fixation implants are positioned within the selected bone, and the prosthesis is securely attached to the fixation implant. Such percutaneous fixation implants are conventionally associated with many complications, including (a) infection at the fixation implant exit site (where the fixation implant exits the body of the subject), (b) skin regression/marsupialization/downgrowth (e.g., epidermal and/or dermal regression), and (c) failure of component materials.
To address these complications, the fixation implants, including abutment components, generally must be removed from the body of the subject and/or replaced. Additionally, in circumstances where any portion of the soft tissue fixation implant (abutment) is demonstrating mechanical failure or is contributing to the experienced complications, the entire fixation implant must be replaced. Thus, not only do the complications outlined above decrease the functionality of the fixation implants, but they also increase the frequency of at which the abutment and/or entire implant are replaced, thereby increasing health care costs and decreasing efficiency of patient treatment and therapy plans.
Accordingly, in view of the above-referenced limitations of conventional fixation implant abutments, what is needed in the art is an inherently adaptable, modular percutaneous abutment system that permits removal of only selected portions of the fixation implant and also permits replacement of the removed portions of the fixation implant with new, revised, and/or optimized components, thereby providing for adaptation of the soft tissue fixation component of the implant to changing patient conditions and increasing the longevity of the fixation implant and abutment system.